Uresti's wife requests home, attorney fees, more in petition

SAN ANTONIO - Online court records show the wife of disgraced senator Carlos Uresti filed for divorce on Friday -- eight days after her husband was found guilty on 11 counts of fraud in a trial that mounted accusations of an extramarital affair against the senator.

Margaret Lleanna Uresti filed for divorce Friday afternoon citing that her marriage to the senator had "become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities" that prevented "any reasonable expectation of reconciliation" after her husband, the petition states, committed adultery.

More News Headlines

According to the document obtained by KSAT 12's Defenders, the couple had married on July 24, 2012 and ceased to live together on Feb. 26, four days after Uresti's convictions were handed down.

The petition included a list of temporary orders and injunctions requested by Uresti's wife. Some of her demands included prohibiting him from calling her from blocked numbers, or at an unreasonable hour; withdrawing money from any checking or savings account; terminating or changing credit limits to her credit cards and terminating any services from their home in Helotes.

Margaret also asked that Carlos give her "exclusive use and possession" of their Helotes home, last appraised at $1.5 million, according to online tax records. The petition asks that Carlos stay away from the home during the entirety of the divorce proceedings.

The petition also asks that Carlos pay for "interim attorney's fees and expenses."

On Feb. 22, a federal jury found Uresti guilty on all 11 federal fraud charges for his role at FourWinds Logistics, a now-bankrupt oil field sand fracking company.

While felons are ineligible to serve in the Texas Legislature, the longtime lawmaker said he has no plans on stepping down from his Senate seat while he appeals the verdict.

The lawmaker from San Antonio is accused of soliciting and lying to potential investors, bilking them out of millions of dollars in what prosecutors called a Ponzi scheme.

During the trial, star witness Denise Cantu told jurors that she and Carlos "would have sex in the bathroom of his law office. He was my friend and lover."

Cantu hired Uresti for a wrongful death lawsuit following a rollover crash that killed two of her children. She told jurors FourWinds officials repeatedly encouraged her to make lump sum investments into the company after the wrongful death suit.

Federal records show all but about $100,000 of a nearly $1 million investment was lost.